On an early spring day, Martín Hernández walked through the dank disorder of his former home. Tobacco had not yet been planted in the fields outside the trailer’s windows, which let in a little light to see how Hurricane Florence had ruined everything years of working for $100 a day […]
Read More
Scientists are predicting extreme weather events linked to climate change will become more common, but states and the federal government have overlooked immigrant farmworkers not only in planning for severe storms, but also for changes such as rising temperatures. Not including immigrant farmworkers could negatively impact the agricultural economy of […]
Read More
During the course of reporting for this project, 100 Days in Appalachia spoke with a number of local, state and national nonprofit and community organizations and climate change experts; some of them had suggestions for changes that would make immigrant farmworkers less vulnerable during and after natural disasters and other […]
Read More
Yesenia Cuello worked in tobacco fields when she was a teenager, and now helps farmworkers as program director at NC Field, a North Carolina-based nonprofit organization. She says immigrant farmworkers are vulnerable during and after extreme storms whether they have a temporary, H-2A visa or not, for reasons ranging from […]
Read More
Martín Hernández lived in a mobile home with his wife and two step-children at the edge of a North Carolina tobacco field for 12 years; his family has been on the same plot of land for four decades. But the undocumented farmworker had zero protection when Hurricane Florence destroyed everything […]
Read More